First Digital Preservation Award 2004

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Press Release Number Three - 23rd June 2004

Digital Preservation Coalition and Pilgrim Trust announce winner of first Digital Preservation Award

The first Digital Preservation Award worth £5,000 in recognition of leadership and achievement in the developing field of digital preservation, was presented tonight by Loyd Grossman to The National Archives for its Digital Archive at a ceremony held at the British Library.

The National Archives beat off competition from around the world with the first all-purpose digital archive, designed to store Government records in many different formats. As the Modernising Government Agenda aims to have all new records stored and retrieved electronically, it is crucially important that digital records will be preserved as effectively as paper ones. The Digital Archive(www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/preservation/digitalarchive/default.htm [link updated 17/09/2004]) will store important Government records, from public enquiries such as the Hutton Inquiry, to e-mails, web pages and databases.

More and more material is being converted to digital format and increasing quantities of information are available only in digital form. Whether they are used for the day-to-day business of government departments, to support academic research, or for the general public seeking information and entertainment, these resources represent a significant investment and there is an increasing dependence on them.

Well known presenter and supporter of the arts, Loyd Grossman OBE FSA, said "I am delighted to be here this evening to present the award for the inaugural Digital Preservation Award. In the two years since I helped to launch the Digital Preservation Coalition, it is reassuring to see how much things have progressed. But it is still daunting to realise how much still needs to be done so we are indeed grateful to those such as the short listed applicants for tonight's award, for all their continuing efforts. History will judge us very harshly if we are unable to overcome the obstacles to preserving access to our burgeoning digital cultural heritage so we need to encourage and reward those who are working to secure it."

The judging was very close and for this first Award, the judges decided that there should also be a special commendation for one of the other short listed projects, the Specially Commended certificate was presented to The CAMiLEON project for their work on testing technical strategies.

Lynne Brindley, Chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition said, "The DPC is very excited to be sponsoring the first ever award for digital preservation. This is an area of massive historical significance and there is a great need for promoting the forward-looking work of all these projects. I am delighted, on behalf of all members of the DPC that this first award has been given to The National Archives in recognition of their pioneering work on the Digital Archive."

Members of the judging panel for the 2004 Digital Preservation Award were Sheila Anderson Director, Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS); Kevin Ashley Head of Digital Archives Department, University of London Computer Centre; Richard Boulderstone (Chair) Director of e-Strategy, at the British Library; David Dawson Senior ICT Adviser for the Libraries & Information Society Team of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA); Barry Fox independent journalist and broadcaster; Nick Higham formerly BBC Arts and Media correspondent and now presenter of BBC News 24's Factfile; Chris Rusbridge Director of Information Services at the University of Glasgow; David Saunders Senior Scientist at the National Gallery, London.

Notes for editors:

Digital Preservation Coalition

The DPC, which was launched in February 2002, is a cross-sectoral membership organisation of 27 major UK organisations, which aims to ensure that digital preservation is kept on the policy agenda and practical progress in preserving access to important digital resources is made. Information about its work can be found at http://www.dpconline.org

The Digital Preservation Award is part of the Pilgrim Trust Conservation Awards. Sponsored by the Pilgrim Trust, the Digital Preservation Coalition and the Anna Plowden Trust, the Awards are also supported by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, English Heritage, the National Preservation Office, the Institute of Paper Conservation and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation. Full details of short listed projects are available on the Conservation Awards website at: http://www.conservationawards.org.uk/

The Pilgrim Trust

The Pilgrim Trust was founded in 1930 by Edward Stephen Harkness of New York to award grants for some of Great Britain's more urgent needs and promote the country's future well being. In 2000, the Trustees made 137 grant commitments totalling £2.9 million, to projects involved in social welfare, art and learning, preservation, cataloguing and conservation of records and the repair of historic churches. Further information on the Trust is available at www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk.

The 2004 Judging Panel

Sheila Anderson is Director, Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). The AHDS is a distributed service and preserves material deposited voluntarily by individuals and research groups within Higher Education, or as a condition of awards granted by the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Kevin Ashley is Head of Digital Archives Department, University of London Computer Centre. For the past ten years, the work of Kevin's group has been primarily involved in the preservation of digital resources on behalf of other organisations. Kevin is a Board member of the Digital Preservation Coalition, a member of the Advisory Council for Erpanet and that of the UK Archives Hub.

Richard Boulderstone (Chair) is Director of e-Strategy at the British Library. This role involves the management and further development of e and IT strategy throughout the British Library, the implementation of digital media projects and services, and the delivery of e-business methods and tools. Major developments to be led by him include the digitisation of many of the Library's collections as well as the archiving of materials that are 'born digital'. Prior to this appointment, Richard has held senior positions in a number of international information providers, working both in the UK and US.

David Dawson is the Senior ICT Adviser for the Libraries & Information Society Team of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). In 1998 David joined the Museums & Galleries Commission as New Technology Adviser, before becoming Senior ICT Adviser. He managed the DCMS/MLA IT Challenge Fund, and is currently working on a range of other projects and strategic developments.

Barry Fox is an independent journalist and broadcaster and winner of several UK Technology press awards. He has contributed regularly to New Scientist magazine for thirty years, and to numerous specialist, hobbyist and trade weeklies and monthlies. Barry is European Contributing Editor for the US-based Warren group of newsletters, including Consumer Electronics Daily. He broadcasts on national and local radio and TV, commenting on technology news and answering listeners' queries live on air.

Nick Higham presents Factfile on BBC News 24, offering background information and analysis on the day's major stories. He was formerly the BBC's arts and media correspondent, reporting for BBC news programmes on television and radio. He has presented programmes and documentaries on Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, BBC Two and World Service. He writes a regular column for Marketing Week magazine and another for BBC News Online. He frequently chairs industry conferences and lectures on the media to students and journalists in the UK and abroad (including Bulgaria and Paraguay).

Chris Rusbridge is Director of Information Services at the University of Glasgow, which is active in the area of digital preservation, including being a member of the consortium that successfully bid for the recently created Digital Curation Centre. Chris was previously Programme Director of the JISC Electronic Libraries Programme, where he was closely involved in many digital preservation activities including Cedars and CAMiLEON.

David Saunders is Senior Scientist at the National Gallery, London. After post-doctoral research he joined the National Gallery as a museum scientist. He has been involved in a number of European Community-supported projects in the area of digital imaging of two and three-dimensional works of art. He has been an Editor of Studies in Conservation since 1990, served on the technical committees for the 1994 and 2000 International Institute for Conservation (IIC) congresses and, since 2003 has been Director of Publications for IIC.

For further information about the DPC and the Digital Preservation Award contact Tom Coupe at Anna Arthur PR on 020 7637 2994 or Fiona Cameron at Museums, Libraries & Archives Council on 020 7273 1459

Press Release Number Two - 1st April 2004

Digital Preservation Coalition and Pilgrim Trust announce shortlist for new Digital Preservation Award

This year for the first time the Pilgrim Trust Conservation Awards will include a new Award sponsored by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). The Digital Preservation Award, worth £5,000, will recognise leadership and achievement in the developing field of digital preservation.

The DPC Award aims to encourage and highlight creative approaches to furthering the digital preservation agenda. The award is aimed at projects that focus on "born-digital" resources rather than those using technology for preservation or conservation purposes and will be awarded to a project which demonstrates leadership and advancement in the digital preservation area.

Richard Boulderstone, Director of e-Strategy at the British Library, who is chairing the Awards Judges, said: "As more and more of our information comes to us through purely digital means, never having a physical form, the work of digital preservation becomes progressively more important if we are to avoid a huge gap in our cultural heritage. The short listed projects represent significant progress in this complex field which still requires considerable support to yield long term benefits."

Other members of the judging panel for the 2004 Digital Preservation Award are Sheila Anderson Director, Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS); Kevin Ashley Head of Digital Archives Department, University of London Computer Centre; David Dawson Senior ICT Adviser for the Libraries & Information Society Team of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA); Barry Fox independent journalist and broadcaster; Nick Higham formerly BBC Arts and Media correspondent and now presenter of BBC News 24's Factfile; Chris Rusbridge Director of Information Services at the University of Glasgow; David Saunders Senior Scientist at the National Gallery, London.

The winner will be announced on 22^nd June by Loyd Grossman at a presentation ceremony at the British Library.

The shortlist for the 2004 Digital Preservation Award is:

The CAMiLEON Project

Bringing together expertise from the University of Leeds (funded by JISC) and the University of Michigan (funded by NSF), the CAMiLEON Project (Creative Archiving at Michigan and Leeds Emulating the Old on the New) developed practical techniques for the use of Emulation in the digital preservation world. These techniques were put into practice with demonstrator developments, in particular a rescue of the BBC Domesday Project using emulation.

The Digital Archive

The National Archives has created the first ever digital archive of electronic Government documents to ensure that records of modern government are preserved securely for future generations. Capable of storing over 100 terabytes of data - equal to 1.5 billion pages of text - the archive also stores sound and graphics files, virtual reality models and even video footage. The archive currently holds records from high profile public enquiries, departmental websites, and the records of parliamentary committees and royal commissions. The Digital Archive is available free of charge in the in public reading rooms at Kew and on The National Archives' Network. A large scale Internet presentation system is in development, to allow access to readers around the world from 2005.

JISC Continuing Access and Digital Preservation Strategy

As a committee of the UK Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, the JISC serves some 200 Higher Education Institutions and 400 Further Education Institutions across the UK and its work therefore has a very wide impact both nationally and internationally.The Continuing Access and Digital Preservation Strategy for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) 2002-5 sets out the case for investment by the sector in digital preservation and the principles and priorities for JISC funded activities and external partnerships to be followed over a three year period.

Preservation Metadata Extraction Tool

Preservation metadata is an essential component of a digital preservation programme. The National Library of New Zealand has commissioned development of a software tool to programmatically extract preservation metadata from the headers of a range of file formats.

The preservation metadata extract tool:

automatically extracts preservation-related metadata from digital files; and
outputs that metadata in a standard format (XML) for uploading into a preservation metadata repository.

Wellcome Library/JISC Web Archiving Project

Perceiving the gap in web archiving activity in Britain, (although aware of initiatives in the USA, Australia, Scandinavia and elsewhere), the Wellcome Library and JISC initiated a project to commission a feasibility study into needs and opportunities for their respective communities. Recognising also that any long-term solution is likely to depend on distributed responsibilities, the project has been developed as a partnership between Wellcome and JISC, with funding split evenly between the two.

Notes for editors:

Digital Preservation Coalition

The DPC, which was launched in February 2002, is a cross-sectoral membership organisation of 27 major UK organisations which aims to ensure that preservation is kept on the policy agenda. Information about its work can be found at http://www.dpconline.org

The Digital Preservation Award is part of the Pilgrim Trust Conservation Awards. Sponsored by the Pilgrim Trust, the Digital Preservation Coalition and the Anna Plowden Trust, the Awards are also supported by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, English Heritage, the National Preservation Office, the Institute of Paper Conservation and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation. Full details of shortlisted projects are available on the Conservation Awards website at: http://www.conservationawards.org.uk/

The Pilgrim Trust

The Pilgrim Trust was founded in 1930 by Edward Stephen Harkness of New York to award grants for some of Great Britain's more urgent needs and promote the country's future well-being. In 2000, the Trustees made 137 grant commitments totalling £2.9 million, to projects involved in social welfare, art and learning, preservation, cataloguing and conservation of records and the repair of historic churches. Further information on the Trust is available at www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk

The 2004 Judging Panel

Richard Boulderstone (Chair) is Director of e-Strategy, at the British Library. This role involves the management and further development of e and IT strategy throughout the British Library, the implementation of digital media projects and services, and the delivery of e-business methods and tools. Major developments to be led by him include the digitisation of many of the Library's collections as well as the archiving of materials that are 'born digital'. Prior to this appointment, Richard has held senior positions in a number of international information providers, working both in the UK and US.

For further information about the DPC and the Digital Preservation Award contact Anna Arthur at Anna Arthur PR on 020 7637 2994 or Emma Wright at Museums, Libraries & Archives Council on 020 7273 1459

Press Release Number One - July 2003

Digital Preservation Coalition and Pilgrim Trust Announce New Digital Preservation Award

The preservation of digital information is a source of great concern and has been the focus of much discussion and research, particularly in recent years. A telling illustration of the fragility of digital media is the BBC Domesday project. Launched to coincide with the 900^th anniversary of the original Domesday project in 1986, the BBC Domesday project fell prey to the inevitable technological obsolescence which affects all digital resources. Researchers were able to retrieve the information but only at the 11^th hour and this rich resource could easily have been lost less than twenty years after it was created while, ironically, the original document still survives.

It is critically important that the varied and complex challenges to preserving digital information are overcome and the DPC Award aims to encourage and highlight creative approaches to furthering the digital preservation agenda. The award is aimed at projects that focus on "born-digital" resources rather than those using technology for preservation or conservation purposes and will be awarded to a project which demonstrates leadership and advancement in the digital preservation arena. Individuals or teams working in the public or private sector are eligible to apply providing the application is supported by the individual(s) or organisation(s) commissioning the work.

Applications for the Digital Preservation Award closed on 30th September 2003. To view the shortlist of entries please click here.

Notes for editors:

Digital Preservation Coalition

The DPC is a consortium of 25 major UK organisations which aims to ensure that digital archiving is kept on the policy agenda. Information about its work can be found at www.dpconline.org. The DPC was launched in February 2002. Full DPC members include the British Library, Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL), the e-Science Core Programme, Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils (JISC), National Archives of Scotland, Online Computer Library Centre(OCLC), , Public Record Office for Northern Ireland (PRONI), Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, The National Archives, and the University of London Computer Centre. Associate members of the DPC include: the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), Central Information Technology Unit for Northern Ireland (CITUNI), Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils(CLRC), National Electronic Library for Health(NELH), National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales , the Natural History Museum, Open University, Publishers Association, Research Libraries Group, Trinity College Library Dublin, UK Data Archive, and the Wellcome Trust Library.

Allied organisations include the National Library of Australia and the National Preservation Office (UK and Ireland).

The Pilgrim Trust

http://www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk